As the title says.
I’ve been wondering if is posible to produce all your music using just Live. What do you think about this? Is something that any of you do?
Not sure if this is a question that have been asked before.
But when I started studying years ago, I got my Ableton License along with Arturia and Native Instruments software. So eventually I fell into the thinking that I need third party software to achieve “well produced” music. So, I’ve been “collecting” plugins, some of them I use, some of them I forgot I had them.
But lately I feel like I need a more focused approach, since some plugins feels duplicate (for example having 3 different EQs or 4 different delays, etc) and made me think on, can I declutter my mind and machine and stick to just Ableton with its native plugins?
I do music as hobby, trying to enter on the realm of make some bucks of it, so I’m not 100% into production yet, meaning I don’t work as a music producer.
About my music and workflow, I move along Techno/House, Lo-Fi and Ambient (I know it could sound a bit hectic but as I say I make music as a hobby so I start a track based on what I feel like to create that day). Also, by the time being I do mix and master my music music (for that I use IK Multimedia’s T-Racks).
Sorry for the long text, but I would like to hear about your experiences. Do you use only Live from start to finish? What are your thoughts on that approach? Is it possible to achieve everything using Live only?
Thanks in advance for your kind replies.
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I’ve spent the last seven years explicitly only using Ableton live 10 (education version) to make my music and it’s been more than enough. Nowadays I use fab filter, toneboosters, sound toys, Denise audio, literally 1.4k plugins on my machine with all the waves plugins. But i spent those seven years never touching any third party plugins (except maybe aberrantDSP they have my favorite boutique plugins but I was gifted them).
If you have Ableton suite you can definitely produce a whole album with just abletons tools.
The only reason you should get other plugins honestly isn’t even about “this plugin does something niche and specific and saves me time”. That’s for professionals which you said you’re not. If you buy plugins you should do it because they change the way you interact / make music. Not because “this plugin will make me sound better”.
During the pandemic I started making music again after a long hiatus. My gear was Live Lite and a laptop. 99% of the time I didn't even use a controller. Got about two-three albums worth of material out of it and never even touched an external plugin. The only limitation is your imagination
This ^ I used lite for a year or two. It was great experience
I have FabFilter pro-q and I only use it in the final stages of mixing. Sometimes echoboy junior if I want echos with a bit more vibe than Ableton’s echo.
I have some very good sample packs and lots of my own samples.
Other than that - it’s all Ableton.
Thanks for your reply. Now what I’m doing is to navigating and using plugins I haven’t used and see if they offer something to my workflow. But my main idea is to stick to Live as much as I can to make things simpler.
PoetMistry on YouTube is an awesome resource in this regard - only using Ableton stock plugins for all of his tutorials.
I’ll take a look to this channel. My point is to take advantage of a complete software a Live Suite is.
100%. Everything else is just extras.
That is why I’m trying to prove. New year resolutions would be do music only with Live for the whole year.
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Yeah you don't need 3rd party plugins if you don't want to use them. Unless you're doing guitar/bass amp sim stuff.
They’re all tools. Ableton comes with everything you need to make music.
Maybe a different type of compression or distortion is more to your taste, or maybe you’re looking to find inspiration beyond what Ableton provides, that’s where a VST comes in.
Absolutely.
Really the only area Live struggles is complicated recording, multi-track editing and kinda PT or Logic style post-production
What do you find are the advantages of PT for post production over Ableton? Curious since I use PT for work and use Ableton for music, it is interesting thinking about the potential of both. I know PT has those different snap modes, like shuffle mode would be useful sometimes in Ableton just for being organized with sound design files I can see. Although it seems easier to just highlight and grab Ableton style as opposed to the stickiness of PT. Being able to jump to the next audio break would be nice in Ableton..
Editing, proper take lanes, playlists. Lots of small workflow improvements that only really matter if you’re editing drums or whatever, but matter a lot if you do.
I only use Arturia's Analog Lab Pro because it came with my keyboard, and everything else is Ableton Suite…
On Logic I had a fair few plugins that I used pretty frequently. The only one I've brought into Ableton so far is Pigments, and I barely use it even then.
The other thing I'm finding with Ableton is the community is much better than Logic. I think Max4Live helps, where people will write neat little devices and give them away for free (and more advanced ones for a fee, which is fine), and any time I've been stuck trying to figure something out, a quick search on Youtube brings up like five videos that show me how to do it.
I feel so much more connected to a music-making community with Ableton compared to Logic. It's great.